Alright, this forum is usually good for a few opinions and I am looking for some perspective.
Backstory, my son is on the HS trap team this year and I got sucked into an assistant coaching role. The head coach seems to have a lot of pull on his time to keep the league mechanics in check (meeting requirements, entering scores correctly, all the nits and nats of HS trap) so that means the other 4 of us assistant coaches are the ones working with the kids while they are shooting.
Now, I am by no means an expert shotgunner, but I do feel I know enough to be some use. I do also put my hours in at Oakdale yearly in the range office role so of course step one is safety and that is the very first and foremost item I am watching for and correcting. Beyond that, what are folks thoughts on some of the things to look for in new shooters? Things to correct? Tips to give?
In my mind I am almost breaking it down into 3 categories, beginner, intermediate, and advanced.
For the beginner I am thinking focus on 3 things (three seems like a number one can remember easily).
1) Foot position
2) Posture
3) Gun mounting (and holding)
and of course really focusing on repetition and constancy in these 3 basics.
For the kid who seems to have the first items down, adding in:
Swing/sight picture/lead/Follow through (in my mind this is all part of one motion and needs to be thought of together).
Then for the advanced kids, maybe talk about,
1)the best place in the flight of the clay to break it
2)Gun fit and tweaking to your personal build
3)choke and patterning
Am I on the right track? Of course it is about having fun so I am trying to do this without being too overbearing.
What am I missing?